16 July 2018
Pandan Valley Condominium was an ambitious project. It sought to provide private housing to middle-income families at prices comparable to those of public housing, and introduce Singaporeans to a brand-new way of living.
When launched in 1977, it was Singapore’s largest condominium with a wide array of facilities. Today, it remains one of Singapore’s architectural landmarks. However, Pandan Valley Condominium almost did not happen.
The project was developed by the bank’s Property Division, whose main task was to liaise with consultants and contractors in the DBS Building project. When the sale of the condo was launched, the property market was going through a sharp downturn. Buyers were holding back in the hope that prices would fall further. At one stage, then-DBS President Howe Yoon Chong said the project might have to be reviewed.
S Dhanabalan and Ng Kee Choe share their memories of the time.
“When we launched Pandan Valley Condominium, we made a very special offer in light of the poor market: you could buy a unit and within five years, if you wanted to sell it, we would buy it back at the original price. So, there was no risk to the buyer.
We did this because we wanted to get sales going. This was something nobody had done before, and to my knowledge, nobody has done since. We made this offer, as we were confident the market would turn around. It was a signal of confidence, which helped the market recover.
The market later picked up, and we didn’t have to keep the offer open.
For those who had taken the offer, they had the choice of either selling the unit back to us, or treating it as a normal property purchase and taking the risk. They took the latter option, because prices had gone up by then.
Basically, the point was, when faced with a problem, we didn’t try to think of conventional solutions. We tried to think of very innovative solutions. We were prepared to do that.”
S Dhanabalan was part of the original team that left the Economic Development Board to start DBS in 1968. He started as Vice President, and was Executive Vice President from 1970 to 1978. He left the bank to take up office as Senior Minister of State for National Development. He later returned as DBS Chairman from 1999 to 2005.
“We decided to go into condominium development because Mr Howe wanted to prove we could provide private housing at competitive prices, comparable to the HDB.
So we started Pandan Valley Condominium. We got Mr Tan Cheng Siong, who designed the Pearl Bank Apartments, as the architect. He had all these ideas! But Mr Howe’s brief was very simple: build as many stacks as you can, as cheap as you can. That, I think, was the primary objective – to make it affordable.
At launch, it was quite difficult. The market was bad. We had to sweat it out.
There was some criticism, that it was too cramped. I told Mr Howe we should knock one tower down, but in the end, we didn’t. The market turned, and we managed to sell everything and make money.
I remember Mr Howe telling me, “Look! If you can ever make money, Kee Choe, I will give you a treat personally.” After we made money, he said, “You should have made more!” – that’s Mr Howe!
If you look at the condo now, you can see it’s not as crowded as some of the private condos coming out today. And, it was affordable. It proved a point, and that was another important milestone.“
Ng Kee Choe joined the bank in 1970 and retired in 2003. His last-held position was Vice Chairman and Director of DBS Group Holdings. During his tenure at DBS, Kee Choe held various senior positions and was President and Chief Operating Officer from 1997 to 2001. He is currently Chairman of CapitaLand Limited.
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